1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a building management system for an office building or the like which is installed in a convenient location.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the development of various control apparatus and information processing apparatus, a building management system has been proposed for efficiently managing an office building and the like requiring the help of only a few personnel. In the above management system, terminal units (such as a telephone set) are kept in communication with a central control apparatus (a central management station), and the central control apparatus controls the utility devices of the building, such as air-conditioning equipment, lighting equipment and electric locks. The system also measures the environmental data of the building, such as temperature, and performs other actions to effectively achieve building management, including environmental protection.
For specifying the utility device to be controlled in the above prior art system, every utility device is subjected to hierarchization so that readout of the state of each utility device, transmission of each control command, etc., can be performed by designating an address set for each hierarchy. For example, three hierarchies are named "module", "group" and "point" in the order of descending hierarchy. Each subject of control is represented by a number, MM/GG/PP, with each hierarchy having a two-digit value. For example, the "module" hierarchy is represented by a two-digit number MM, the "group" hierarchy is represented by a two-digit number GG, and the "point" hierarchy is represented by a two-digit number PP. When controlling or managing the state of a given utility device, a terminal unit is operated to input the data of each of the two digit numbers MM/GG/PP. The hierarchization is carried out based on the layout of building facilities. For example, where a building has a large number of floors, each floor makes up one group and a plurality of floors makes up one module. By contrast, in a small-sized building, each room makes up one group and a plurality of rooms makes up one module. The foregoing MM/GG/PP is a numerical value (number) defined from the standpoint of instrument facilities. Consequently, when controlling the terminal unit, a user (e.g., a tenant employee) operating various facilities of the building has to perform an input operation, relying on memory or consulting a list of the numbers to designate the desired device. This procedure can be troublesome and tends to cause errors (for example, incorrect input). Therefore, a utility device different from the device intended to be the subject of control could be erroneously actuated, resulting in inconvenience and inefficient building management.